Although once a means for human survival, fishing in the modern age has evolved into more of a competitive and recreational sport. To increase their chances for a successful outing, modern anglers prefer to utilize equipment and devices that they know will work and that they can rely on. Though not completely fool-proof, many fishing accessories have improved simply because technology and manufacturing methods have improved as well. This makes fishing equipment more reliable and affordable. In the view of this inventor, however, there is always room for improvement of equipment and the traditional ice rigger is one such piece of equipment that anglers and others have sought to improve over the years.
The ice rigger has been a staple of ice fishing for many years. Many designs and configurations have been used. Ice riggers, or “tip-ups”, of prior design tend to include three essential elements. One is a holder for fishing line. The second is some sort of trip mechanism. And the third is some sort of indicator mechanism. When used as intended, the fishing line holder allows for an amount of line to be fed out from the holder which then causes some sort of movement along the ice rigger. When the movement is detected, the trip mechanism is activated and the indicator mechanism, which is typically a brightly-colored flag or similar device, is raised to indicate to the angler that something has occurred below the ice. Although many different types of ice riggers exist in the knowledge and experience of this inventor, none of them are known by him include the special utility of allowing the angler's fishing pole to be secured to the device in a variety of positions and to use a specially-devised slack “take-up” mechanism to serve the combined function as the trip mechanism and the activator for the indicator, which is the flag.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and useful ice rigger apparatus that allows the angler to use his or her fishing rod with the apparatus and that allows the angler to set the position of the fishing rod in such a way that a trigger mechanism is actuated by a slight “take-up” in slack in the line coming from the reel of the fishing rod. It is another object to provide such an ice rigger apparatus whereby the trigger mechanism uses a minimal number of parts and a minimal number of steps to use, but which is also reliable in its operation. It is yet another object to provide such an ice rigger apparatus whereby the apparatus is manufactured of durable material, is relatively lightweight, strong, and no more expensive to produce than currently available parts are, and perhaps even less so, thus making the apparatus useful and affordable in its design and construction.